May 16, 2005

God and AIDS

This bit of reporting by Helen Epstein, about AIDS prevention in Uganda, is one of the most fascinating—and horrifying—things I've read in awhile. It's not just that all those funds for abstinence education in Africa are being wasted on programs that don't work. Rather, the religious organizations carrying out these abstinence programs have actually been lobbying to suppress condom education and the highly successful "Zero Grazing" campaign in Uganda (a safe-sex version of polygamy). These battles, for the most part, seem to have little to do with ideology or religion, and everything to do with different groups scrabbling over lavish government contracts. Meanwhile, people die. Lovely.